Historias Positivas

Fourteen HIV-positive people, all citizens of Mexico, illuminate the landscape of their lives through stories and photographs. That's the simple premise of Historias Positivas, which is co-sponsored by Letra S in Mexico City and the Art|Global Health Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Historias Positivas is directed by South African photographer Gideon Mendel, one of the foremost chroniclers of the global AIDS epidemic, working alongside Alejandro Brito Lemus, an accomplished AIDS activist and writer who is the director of Letra S. The goal is to demonstrate how stories are changing in this corner of Latin America, where many lives have been prolonged by advanced drug therapies and where oppressive stigma is maybe, just maybe, beginning to lift.

Facing Gideon Mendel's camera, and picking up their own, the participants reveal themselves as strong men and women, as creative forces, and as agents for change.

Historias Positivas is supported by grants from UC Mexus and the Ford Foundation.